Even in the End
by RevlonDevlon
Summary: With only death and chaos to rule the world is there really any hope that it can all ever be what it once was? Zack x Cloud, Yaoi, AU.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **Hello everyone and thank you for giving my story a chance just by clicking on the link. I'm Rev, and I shall be leading you through this journey, hopefully ya' never know. Anyway, I'm not gonna lie I'm new to this game, I've never played it, all I have to go on is what I've read from Google, and other people's fanfictions. So please if you ever have any _constructive _criticism please don't be afraid to offer it forward. At the beginning of each chapter I will take the time to answer any guest reviewers, as well as answering the already Member reviews through Private Messages. I will only put the disclaimer and warning in the first chapter, unless it gets a little gory in a separate chapter, at which point I will only put up a warning. I will attempt to put up a chapter every single week, unless I get to writer happy, then I might post several.

This story is actually an old idea I had a few years back that I finally decided to revisit, so I hope you all enjoy the story, sit tight, and happy reading!

_-Rev_

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the characters that are going to be used in this story, I honestly wish I did, but ya' know how it goes.

**Warnings: **This story will contain massive amounts of death, gore, and subjective material, I am not responsible for any nightmares or wet dreams you might have reading this story.

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**Prologue**

Slash, splatter. Thump, crack. These were only some of the sounds that continuously echoed through the small, modern hallway. Fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling, the space between each light was large enough to leave a space dark enough for anything to hide in it, that was the danger, what hid in the darkness. Slash, splatter. Thump, crack. Another body fell to the floor, though blood did not seep from the wounds, and neither did the body grow cold after death, it was already cold.

Panting and groaning were some other noises that sounded in the hallway, the panting of the two men viciously fighting their way through, their bodies ached with a deep burning sensation. It was more than just the physical exhaustion they faced now, it was deeper than that, it was mental, it was a tiredness for life, but a desire to keep fighting, a desire to live. Slash, splatter, the last body fell to the floor, in front of them lie several of the creatures that had risen from the ashes of the fallen Human Society. Their mouths were blood stained, and their skin had rotted in some areas, leaving only a dreaded odor in its place. The stainless steel walls were covered in blood, the blood however was not old, it was long since dried before the men came here.

"Come on. We don't have much time." The smaller of the two men said, catching his breath and moving forward quickly. He kept his head up, his eyes alert to any movement that happened in the darkness, any one of _them _might be lurking, just eager to take a small bite. He shook his spiky hair and heard the other man silently following after him, the other wasn't far from him, keeping a protective closeness to the smaller man. They walked only moments before a door appeared in view and both of their hearts started to pound in their chests, all he could hear was the beating of his heart in his ears. He felt a hand rest on his shoulder and stopped in his tracks, the hand was large and warm, a comforting presence in such a dreaded place.

"Let me." The other said moving in front of the smaller of the two and rested his hand on the smooth metal handle of the door. It was cool to the touch, as if it hadn't been used in years. He counted down mentally and when he hit three he shoved the door open a large broadsword held in one hand as he peered around the room. Wires, that was the first thing to be seen, wires and tubes. They all moved towards the center of the room, in his mind they seemed like a bunch of snakes all joining together upon a mother snake, and in a sense they were exactly like snakes. In the middle of the room a large tube ran straight up, at the feet of the tube a lifeless body lay there, bloody and broken, but not being cannibalized.

"Welcome gentlemen, welcome to my home." Dread followed the smooth voice that rang out into the enclosed room. "Come and meet my mother."


	2. Chapter One

**Author's Note: **Well hello again my lovely readers, first off I would like to say happy late end of the world, it really went well I think, a little dull. I was legitimately afraid something was gonna happen, I'm very superstitious. Anyway I would like to thank Dark Hikari Twilight for being the first to review my story, thanks! So, there's no special warnings for this chapter or anonymous reviews to be had so I'll just get on with the story! Please review at the end of the chapter and give me your feed-back I really do appreciate it!

_-Rev_

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_June 2005 a small company in New Hampshire was developed, named after the family they joined in the electricity business. Family owned and starting in a small town they quickly erased any competition with their great work and low prices, and soon Shinra expanded. Slowly they moved into town after town and by the same time three years later they were leading in several areas, energy, grocery and military. They were the single biggest company in the entire world, they were in every country that had money, and soon their greed corrupted their minds. President Shinra as he was known throughout the world had a taste for money, it showed in his impressive gut. He had a taste for everything he never had growing up, and as his power in the world grew so did his desire to own it. He was a ruthless businessman who crushed any and all competition._

_ He was known to be a big supporter in Politics in the United States and whoever had the man's financial support also seemed to win any and all elections that they entered into. Unlike in the beginning the signs of corruption and greed started to show, the quality of Shinra's work started to decline, and the prices sky rocket, yet it was too late for anyone to go anywhere else, Shinra had a monopoly on society. Many people protested Shinra, many fought legally to be rid of the company, but in a world spurred by greed they all lost, and soon everyone stopped trying to get rid of the company and just deal with it in other ways. Many families started to grow their own food and make their own clothing as a way to defy the Shinra Company. It was only a small amount of people who did this though, many leading a busy life where they desired a quick way to obtain food. Shinra solidified its control on the world however when President Shinra himself ran for the Oval Office. It was a shock to none when the results were turned and he had won. _

_ In the same year in the icy and harsh lands of Greenland up north near the top of the world under decades of ice there was a crater, it was the largest crater known to history. Shinra felt it necessary to explore the icy remains of the hole and it was there that Shinra found it's most life changing and world changing artifact, a person. It was like none had ever seen before, it was a young woman, her long silver hair unruly and frozen, she was perfectly preserved she almost appeared to have just been sleeping. __Her skin though was an odd purple grey color, most people took it for just being frozen for only god knows how long, none knew that was the color of her natural skin. Taking her into the fields of Southern France they set her up in a large laboratory. Around the time of the excavation __a new source of energy and development was discovered, life. Life is what kept humans moving, it's what kept them working and producing, and Shinra was convinced such power could be harvested and produced._

_ In 2010 he succeeded in creating a supplement that would increase a human's energy, it was healthy and it was completely free of side effects, and they were right. In the same time in a feat of scientific genius Jenova, as the men named her, was resurrected, __it was the greatest feat of human technology in the history of mankind. They left her suspended in a tube, her eyes glowed a dark pink, almost red in color, and she did nothing, only watched. It was hard to tell if there was any life left inside of the woman, Shinra however thought she was the key to human's next great evolutionary step. Harvesting her cells he created a new serum, this one would be the key to human engineering this would be the key to a new life for the human race. Without any testing the Shinra company produced the serum on an international basis, every person in the world got it, except those of course who stood __against Shinra. It wasn't long before the effects of taking the drug showed, and for the time being, human life had exceeded any expectation that anyone ever had for it._

_People were faster, stronger, more intelligent it was a time of human ingenuity, then the outbreak came on bloody wings, December 21__st__, 2012. Ground Zero was located in Cannes, France and from there it spread like wild fire, all that was left in the wake of the outbreak was death and fire. Anyone who had taken the Jenova Serum would slowly turn into one of those... things. They feasted on the flesh of the living and sowed misery wherever they walked, they were the Dead. They were fast, they were strong, though luckily for the human race they lost all sight, and intelligence. As soon as the plague ravaged through France it spread to Iberian peninsula, and through the rest of Western Europe and towards Asia, and Africa. In the United States the plague was just a bad rumor until in January 1__st__ 2013 the first outbreak occurred in New York City. _

_ The military was able to respond quickly to the threat of outbreak and contained the city, anyone inside the city was leveled with a tactical nuke. However from that point the outbreak started in several other places and even the men the army succumbed to the drug in their bodies. With no one to defend the citizens soon city after city, state after state went dark, soon there was no government, no control, the infrastructure of society had failed and been literally torn apart. The only people with the hope of survival were the ones who stood against Shinra, those who did not take part in the Jenova Serum. They were hunted by the dead, smelt and heard in their hiding places and soon the human race was near extinction, only small pockets of humans remained alive in the world and everyday that number got smaller and smaller. __Nature took back what it had lost, all the centuries of work that humanity put into building itself drifted away like dust in the wind._

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Moist, white mist swirled delicately from the mouth of the teenage boy as his sharp cerulean eyes stared ahead towards the snow covered roads. There was probably about a foot possibly a foot and a half covering the ground, cars were left abandoned on the sides of the road, sometimes in the middle of it. He had a small black beanie that had shown years and years of wear over his unruly blonde hair, being forced down it came down and into his face, he was constantly pushing it out of his eyes. He had to see everything, he had to hear everything. He had survived two years, at least he assumed it was two years, he had past winter once and he was in it now hence all the snow on the ground. Cloud was happy to see it, even if it made it harder to travel around town he could tell if anyone else had been here. He let out a sigh again and stared at the mist as it drifted away from him and he shook himself out of his thoughts.

He stepped up and continued on his path towards the old and abandoned grocery store, it used to be a Safeway some years ago, but after Shinra took over it was a Shinra-store. He grabbed his chest feeling a closed up and tight feeling, it had been like this for a while now. He took a deep breath and the feeling past, though not for long, and the cold air was not helping him. He forced himself to keep walking, only the crunch of the snow under his boots accompanied him to the store, and it was starting to irritate him. He was walking down 4th Street, or what was left of it, not much was left of the little town that he was in. He stared at every store that he past looking for any signs of the dead, luckily they wouldn't be able to see him, he would just have to be silent if he happened to pass by a group of them, that was one thing about the snow he didn't much care for. He looked inside a car, the window was smashed in and a dark stain hugged the edges of the broken window.

After finding nothing in it he kept walking his eyes everywhere and his ears listening to the deep silence that followed after every one of his boot steps. He had heavy black combat boots, his Grandparents had gotten them for him before the end came, paratroopers used them quiet often. It had taken a while but his feet finally got used to the tight and pinchy feeling of the shoe. It was thick leather and he needed it, it was durable seeing as he had it for two years, when he allowed himself to think about useless thoughts it annoyed him that he hadn't grown at all for two years. His pants were tight, they were stretchy though and it showed the slender yet defined muscle of the calf and thigh, and due to all the work he had to do he had quiet an ass, too bad there was no one really left to look at it. He had a black t-shirt on underneath a black leather jacket and black leather gloves, he stood out against the white ground, but he could care less, the only people that could see him would be the living which he was hoping would find him one day, but with each passing moment he lost hope for that a little more. And then of course that little black beanie that kept his wild hair under check, though only barely.

He turned a corner down at the middle-school he used to attend and started to follow that road down he was probably five minutes walk from the store at the end of the road. He started to hum a tune his mother used to hum to him to help him sleep better and his facial expression, one of sorrow but cold determination to continue, didn't alter as he hummed. Almost exactly five minutes later he turned again towards a small gathering of stores, at the farthest end from him was a large grocery store. It was almost of anything useful to him seeing that he had been there many times, and of course the looters before him. He walked over the remains of a glass door that used to protect the store from the outside world and he glanced into the deep darkness before him. He pulled out a flash light and grabbed a little basket, he had forgotten the one he normally brought at home. He walked down only two or three isles total, the rest were full of useless material like rotted fruits and vegetables, so long rotted that they lost their scent.

He had a basket full of canned potatoes and green beans, a feast at this point in time, and he looked towards the back. He always heard sounds from there so he refused to go back there, he wondered now if it might be worth it. He slowly approached the back room where all the stock was originally held and slowly pushed up a screeching door, he winced as moved into the room but away from it quickly, he held his breath and waited several moments before finding nothing was coming for him. Moving himself away from the wall silently he took deep even breaths so that he couldn't be heard and he started to creep through the darkness. He wondered if he had ever heard anything in the first place, it seemed devoid of any dead and of any food. He stepped around an empty and broken box and then heard a bone chilling shriek, a signal of the dead. He drifted over towards a trashcan that still reeked like hell to mask his scent and pulled a small knife from his belt.

He kept his light up looking for the creature that made the noise and from the corner of his vision. His light illuminated the blind figure in a terrifying way, there was a large hole through it's shoulder, broken bone jutted out and dried blood stained the ruined clothes. Its fingers were drenched in blood where they had shoved themselves into the living and tore at the muscle and flesh. It's pants were equally eaten into, chunks of flesh missing, though no blood flow coursed through the creature it hadn't rotted a day, damn Jenova Serum. The white eyes flicked left and right desperately trying to see something, even with Cloud's light shined directly into its face it didn't react. Looking around he pulled a rock out of his pocket, he kept them in special case something were to ever happen, something like this. Lifting the rock up and tossing it in the opposite direction of the door and himself it clanked against a box and the ground, with a screech the creature ran towards the noise, knocking things over and creating plenty of noise.

Stepping away from the trash can he wished to bolt from the room, but if he did he would possibly draw more attention to himself. He rubbed his arms and silently made his way back out the space and into the main area. He departed quickly from the store, happy to find himself back in the sunlight with the snow on the ground. He huddled into his jacket as a lazy breeze drifted through the streets and he sighed, happy to see the white mist in front of him again. He had a long way to walk, and it might take him the rest of the day, and it was never a good thing to be caught out in the open at night. He sighed and his mind blanked as he walked through the snow, he didn't take notice of the trees or of the broken buildings and cars. The only sound that he paid attention to was the sound of his own footsteps, he hoped not to hear any others.

It was just as the sun was setting before he got back into his little edge of town, lucky for him he lived outside of town, and he had cleared out the neighborhood in the early days of the infection. He walked past the homes, they were just now falling into a state of disrepair, but for the most part they looked as if nothing had happened, and that was what kept Cloud from going insane, that it appeared nothing happened. Sometimes if it was a good day he could pretend he was just going on a walk, before everything had happened and when he opened the door he would find his family there sitting and waiting for him. He shook his head, those were dangerous thoughts, the last thing he had promised his mother was... no he couldn't think on it. He turned and walked into his driveway and soon found himself in the cold house, he sighed, he would have to start a fire. The windows were boarded up neatly, and it was clean, the house was in perfect condition. He walked into the house and put the basket of goodies in the other basket, he would take both of them with him tomorrow so he didn't have more than one.

He pulled off his coat and hung it up in the closet, the house was 'L' shaped and had a total of four bedrooms, all the doors were open except one, the master. He rarely went into the room anymore, every time he did he found himself over come with grief, he only checked on it to see if any repairs needed to be made, he would probably have to do so again. Most of the pictures were set on the tables, and they were faced down, walking over he picked one up it was of him and his child-hood friend. She had disappeared as soon as the outbreak had happened, Cloud was sure she had perished. He placed the picture face down again and walked away into the kitchen to grab a can-opener and a fork, he had a date with dinner. He sat at the couch for dinner, hunched over the food in his hand, in this time of world the food in front of him was a feast of epic proportions. When he finished he leaned back on the couch and sighed looking over his shoulder he grabbed a match and started to light some candles around the room.

He kept the house well illuminated while he was up in the night, but before bed he would flick them off so as to save wax. Once he finished with that he felt a tightness in his chest again he patted his chest and cleared his throat, it was hard to breathe again, just as before it past. Shaking his head he looked towards his parent's old bedroom, grabbing a candle he walked over towards it slowly, even on the creaky wood panels he made no noise. Grasping the cool handle he turned it slowly as if some horrific monster lay in wait behind the door. Pushing his way inside the temperature changed drastically, it was freezing inside the room. It was just as they left it, the floor was dusty, and the bed sheets rumpled and thrown to the side, he could remember the night clearly.

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_Cloud woke when a shriek tore through his peaceful slumber, he sat up and grabbed the sheets and pulled them up to his chest. The shriek sounded close by and he whimpered, still frightened of the dark, he was fifteen he shouldn't be but he couldn't help it. _

_ "M-Mom? D-Dad?" He questioned quietly into the darkness of his bedroom and received no answer, though he was expecting that sort of reaction. Standing up he stood on his bed as he leaned over towards the wall and flicked on the light, with the illumination he realized nothing was in his bedroom and he let out a relieved sigh. __Moving to sit back down he heard the frantic and scared voice of his mother._

_ "Cloud!? Cloud, Honey open up your door we have to go." He heard the fierce pounding on his door and he opened it up to reveal his mother, she was tall and gorgeous. Her long blonde hair drifting to her waist and her wide blue eyes taking in the sight of him. "Come on Honey we have to go, Daddy is gonna start the car." _

_ "Where are we going?" He questioned sleepily as his mother took his hand and started to drag him off._

_ "We're going to go stay with Grandma and Grandpa." She answered back and he wondered why he couldn't take some of his clothes with him, what was the hurry? The door was wide open, it was a summer night and though only a little chilly it was bearable. _

_ "Jason! Are you out there!?" His mother called out and when no response came back she and Cloud stood at the doorway. Cloud didn't notice it but his mother seemed to get even more fidgety and __then out of the darknes-._

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"No!" He cried out breaking his thoughts out of the past and his fist slammed to the wall, leaving a dent and a bit of scrapes on his hand. "God dammit!" He cussed as he realized he would have to fix the hole in his wall. He slammed the door shut on his way out, he fought the tears that built in his eyes, storming into his bedroom he shut and locked the door putting a chair against it. Stripping his shirt and pants off he slipped into a t-shirt and shorts with his head on the pillow he drifted off into a troubled sleep.

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'Crunch, crunch, crunch.' The sound of his footsteps were again the only sound that accompanied him on his way into town. As he walked he remembered how busy these roads used to be, he had decided to get more food, though he didn't really need it. He crunched his way through the snow, the sun was just rising and it felt nice on his chilled skin and clothing. He was warm enough as long as he kept moving but the extra warmth was always nice. An hour and a half later he was inside town, on an old street, Milton, he walked past several stores, all empty he checked, and gas stations. Some of the buildings had dark stains on them from the initial outbreak, he didn't think too hard on it though.

He was going to a grocery store that he hoped was filled with a wider variety of food, maybe some fruits, he wanted the sweetness that he hadn't had for months. He only get fruit during the summer when he found fruit trees that seemed to yield amazing amounts of fruit, he had eaten all of it already though. He pulled the thick black scarf he had up and over his nose, the air was a nipping chill today, he didn't much care for it, only the sun made it bearable.

"Help me!" He heard a shriek and he froze in his tracks, was it possible? He heard screaming, some from a living being and others from those creatures, if he had to guess it was two of them after one person. He didn't move for a moment soon though he found himself running towards the noise his knife pulled out and ready to shank anything that got in his way. He ran as fast as he could but when he heard that blood curdling shriek of death he knew he was too late, it was loud and he knew he was near the scene. When he looked down an ally he saw it, a young woman, her dark skin was now stained with her blood, her green eyes stared up at the sky, two creatures were feasting on her insides.

"Miranda! Miranda are you there." He heard an electronic sound and realized the girl was not alone, she was sadly still alive, looking over at cloud tears falling out of her eyes she weakly grabbed the walkie-talkie and threw it to him.

"T-Take it please." Cloud didn't hear a word she said but he could read lips and she offered him a small smile, bending to where the small thing had fallen he grabbed it and his own blue eyes watered. When he looked back up at her she was gone, her eyes glazed over, the two creatures too busy with their meal to even realize that he was behind them. Turning he walked away, steeling himself away, but then he looked over his shoulder and froze in his tracks, a horde, a horde of those things were behind him. They were a good distance behind them, they shuffled along through the snow, their stench left him gagging, he contemplated hiding but if they found him... so he dropped the baskets and ran. He had food at home it could wait a day, he bolted through the empty town and away from the horde of dead, knife in one hand, walkie-talkie in the other. He hadn't prepared for a Horde to come though, and to be honest this was the first time he had ever seen one.

He didn't hear any screeching which meant that they hadn't heard him running away from them, and for that he was grateful, he knew he couldn't fight off that many, it was obvious. He didn't stop running for a while, he kept running and running until he was in his neighborhood bending at the waist he sucked in air like it was the last time he would ever have any. He panted and hissed as the cold air pained his already sore lungs, he wondered what was wrong with him, this wasn't right. After several minutes of heavy breathing he walked again, slowly towards his house hand on his chest. He rubbed at the tightness and opened his door slowly and he instantly knew something was wrong, there was too much light in the small enclosure. He raised his knife ready to strike for the head, he would be rid of whatever was in here. One of the boards to his windows had been punched in, in fact several, they were pushed open, something had gotten in.

He breathed silently, forcing himself to suck in quieter breaths so as not to let onto his location, he heard something in his room and he made his way over. He had his knife up ready to bring it down on one of their heads when it came out, looking at the closed door to his bedroom, he shoved it open and as soon as he did a fist came out aimed for his head. Ducking under the arm he brought his knife up to slice at the arm, but whatever it belonged to was quick, as he raised his arm up he felt something sweep under his feet, landing on his back the knife sliding away he stared up, a familiar pair of reddish brown eyes stared back at him in shock.

"Cloud Strife!?"

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**Author's Note: **And that's what I got for you all today. What's the verdict eh? Make sure to review for me please tell me your thoughts and Merry Christmas!

_-Rev_


	3. Chapter Two

**Author's Notes: **Hey there! I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas, it's the time to be jolly and such. I didn't get any reviews for last chapter which makes me kinda sad, I feed on your reviews, and at the moment I'm starved! Anyway, I'm putting a lot more work into this Chapter because I didn't really get a lot of time to do the other one, by the time

I touched it I had a day to get it out onto the market. So I hope you enjoy this chapter and please Review for me!

_-Rev_

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Staring up at the figure above him he couldn't believe it, he shouldn't believe it, he had finally snapped that's it he should just throw himself to the zombies now.

"Cloud is that really you?" She questioned again, all Cloud could do was stare up at her with wide eyes and mouth agape. He long hair was tied near the end, she called it a dolphin tail, and said hair was a dark brown in color. He face was heart shaped and her eyes an unforgettable russet brown, maybe now after the end they looked closer to red. "Cloud answer me!"

"Y-Yes." He said simply that was all he could manage, she had gotten a lot... um bigger, she was taller and her knockers weren't so small anymore, in fact they were huge! She had a white long-sleeved shirt on under a sleeve-less black vest. Her hands encased in black leather, where there studs on the knuckles? Her pants were black cargo and she seemed to have boots like his, though hers appeared recently acquired.

"Thank God! You're alive!" Extending a hand she reached out to help the taller of the two up and they wrapped their arms around each other. They had been best friends since birth and it was so nice to see her again.

"H-How I thought you died!" He questioned, he remembered how he ran to her house after the first outbreak within the city and had found her house empty.

"After, we need to get out of this place, where's Miranda?" Cloud shook his head and looked away from the peering eyes at him and Tifa sighed. "I see, did you...?" He shook his head and she sighed again, it only meant she might have to end it later is all.

"Come on." He grabbed her hand and started to run towards the door, he had all that he cared to take with him on his person, and it was all he needed to stay alive. Pushing the door open he froze in his tracks, they were surrounded by the Horde already. The house broke them apart, allowing Cloud and Tifa space but with the door opening some of the creatures had grown curious and started to slink their way over, sniffing the air, lucky for them in large groups their own scent masked that of Cloud and Tifa's.

Pressing a finger to her mouth she slowly started to tug Cloud back into the house, he seemed to follow willingly. Moving so that she was pressing Cloud back into the house she hurried it up a little because the Infected were getting close, they were only a mere few feet away and their lips were curling, when the first one shrieked Tifa knew they were caught. Shoving Cloud into the house she slammed the door shut and Cloud was already pulling her deeper into the house.

"We have to hide!" He said, Tifa however thought it was useless to hide, they were going to be caught and eaten, but she wouldn't go down without a fight. "Trust me!" He said and she bit her lip, finding themselves in Cloud's room, the banging on the front door was frantic and hungered. Locking the door behind him he heard the front door break open and he bent and lifted the bed up. "Go! I'll be in there in a moment!"

He hissed quietly to her trying not to alert the creatures to their location just yet. Sliding under the lifted bed Tifa made herself as flat as she could go, which wasn't too much. Setting the bed down Cloud sucked his stomach in and laid his face down against the ground so his cheek was to the carpet. He was faced away from Tifa and he heard her squirm in discomfort.

"This damn bed is crushing my boobs." She whimpered and he reached out taking her hand and patting it he stared at the door and he winced when the banging continued on said door. He watched and waited for the door to give way, and in a small explosion of splinters it did the door itself broke in half and in crawled the Infected. They sniffed the air instantly they were able to pick up their scent and started to swarm around the room, lucky for Cloud and Tifa though they were stupid and blind. Cloud could feel them crawling over the bed and breaking the closet doors, all trying so hard to find them. They broke his TV that he never used in the first place and knocked over his dresser and threw clothes everywhere. They searched so desperately for the meal they could smell.

Tifa watched their feet patter on the carpet almost silently, most of them left blood foot-prints, some blood shoe prints and she lifted a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose, every intake of air in through her mouth she swore she could taste them as if she were licking their corpses. Eventually she closed her eyes, hand held tightly in Cloud's, they were sweating so much from the nerves but unlike what Tifa originally thought they looked as though they might make it. That was until one of the creatures tripped onto the ground.

Cloud stared down at the foot of the bed as beast sniffed around slowly as if the scent had gotten stronger it moved closer and closer to Cloud's foot. He sealed his lips shut tightly waiting for it to get closer. As it got closer and closer the rage on its unmarked face grew, its red eyes seemed to almost glow with a burning hunger. Feeling the nose on the bottom of his boot the hair on the back of his neck stood up and he bit his lip but someone somewhere was looking out for him. The creature wailed and pulled away, Cloud chalked it up to smelling dirty rubber.

It was several hours before anything changed, growing tired of the hunt the Infected fled the room rejoining the Horde, it was so big they weren't even caught in the middle of it yet. Only the quiet moaning and wailing from outside sounded inside the room and the house, all of the dead quickly losing interest in the house. It was dark when Cloud and Tifa actually started to talk.

"We made it." Cloud nodded as Tifa whispered the words her body seemed to slump and she let out a relieved sigh. Cloud however stayed as stiff as a board, ready at any moment for the dead to come swarming back into the room. "Cloud are you ok?"

"No, but is anyone?" He questioned and he didn't get an answer back, Tifa was always a bit motherly and tender to him. She didn't have many friends besides him but the friends she did have she was always very close to, Cloud was her best.

"I'm so glad to see you." Tifa kept her voice down to a whisper, as did Cloud when he spoke that is. He had changed, Tifa could see it, what Cloud thought was a cold exterior though was just hurt, she could always see through him.

"Where have you been?" His question caught her off guard and she smiled softly to herself the memories slowly coming to the forefront of her mind.

"When the outbreak happened in the city my father took me and my mother down to Phoenix, he thought that if anywhere were going to be safer it would be where more people were. We found an apartment, cheap of course, and we lived there for a while, the town as you know barricaded itself in but that didn't really help in the end. Because there were so many people when the first of the Infected got inside the disease spread like a wild fire." Tifa sighed feeling a lump grow in her throat, she didn't really care to talk about her time in the city. "I got separated from Mom and Dad, I hid away for a long time, at least until the screaming stopped." She squeezed Cloud's hand tighter in her own grip and sniffed back, she felt the tears water in her eyes. "I managed to get past the barricades and into the desert, I went north I didn't make it very far before I passed out from the heat."

Cloud listened with rapt attention, never shifting and only listening to the sound of her whisper, he could hear the mood on her words and it seemed as though this were very hard for her to talk about.

"I collapsed on the side of the road, and I got lucky, Cid found me." Cloud's eyebrow arched, Cid? He didn't know any Cid from before the Outbreak, it must have been someone she had met then and there. "He took me back to his little base, he calls it Casa De Zombie for some reason, I think it's because of his sick sense of humor. But there Aerith nursed me back to health." Her tone of voice changed from one of sadness to one of fondness.

"Who's there?" He asked, if they were still there that is.

"Well as I said there's Cid, he's our unofficial leader, he's pretty crass and well... I think he may have a few loose bolts in his head. Vincent, he's... well he's just plain creepy goth Vincent I don't really know much about him." She sighed at the thought and shook her head. "Then there's Barrett biggest, baddest son of a bitch I know. He's the biggest, in like... everything, and he has a fake arm." Tifa could imagine Cloud arching an eyebrow at that, she didn't know why she had to tell him about the arm but she figured why not. "Then there's Yuffie, she's a small spunky Japanese girl, I love her to death, she's absolutely funny, she brings light into this dark world, she's also the youngest."

Cloud felt a little bit better, at least there was still some good left in the world to look forward to.

"Aerith is possibly the sweetest most kind woman in the entire world, before and after the Outbreak. She's the resident doctor, she takes care of everyone, and she also grows a lot of flowers, fruits and vegetables, best produce I've ever eaten." Cloud felt his heart beat a little tight, Tifa wasn't alone in this world as he was. "Finally, there's Zack, Cloud let me tell you something, that boy, well man, is the hottest piece of... whatever he is and will be ever." Cloud reached over and put his hand over Tifa's mouth as she let out a loud laugh. He heard a responding wail and glared at the broken door, mentally glaring at Tifa. After a moment of muffled laughter she calmed down and sighed in content.

Silence was shared between the two for a moment, Tifa squeezed his hand prompting him to talk about what had happened to him. Tifa could see Cloud's face wince and she frowned, leaning over she rested against his side offering her comfort.

"The only really memorable thing that I can think of is... the first night this all happened, you were smart to get away Tifa, it may have been futile in the end but it saved you some horror." He whispered darkly, he didn't get any response from the woman next to him, Cloud rarely talked to anyone but Tifa seemed able to get full stories out of him. "They died, I don't really want to go into details, but I-I... when they had changed I-" he swallowed and shuddered. "I ended it."

Tifa dearly wished she could comfort Cloud, but in their current position they were lucky to be breathing with this damn boob crushing bed on them.

"After the initial Outbreak there wasn't really a lot that happened, occasionally a few people would travel through loot what hey needed and leave, or they would die. During the first Winter after the town was abandoned I had traveled into town and I met a sweet couple, poor, poor people."

* * *

_Cloud pulled his jacket closer, the look on his face was one of cool indifference but that wasn't how he felt on the inside, on the inside he was panicking. The sun had already fallen and he couldn't see much in front of him, lucky for him there was no snow on the ground, but the cold wasn't a dull cold that rubbed against your body leaving your insides warm. No this was a piercing chill that moved deep into the center of your core and made everything it touched cold. Huffing he turned up a small side-walk and to a broken down door, he moved silently into the small house. He found himself perched on a couch staring out the window watching, he wouldn't sleep at all tonight. _

_ "George we need to rest!" His ears perked as he heard a female voice in the cool night air and he looked around, it was close by._

_ "We will Honey but we need to find a suitable safe place to rest." Finally his eye caught two figures, he stared at them closely, they moved slowly, it was either that they were tired or the cold was getting to them. Just then a wail sounded in the night air and the pair stopped and he frowned, moving quickly he moved to the door-way._

_ "Over here, hurry!" He hissed quietly into the night air and they stared at him, or he assumed they did, he couldn't really make out their faces or bodies in the night. "Please they're coming!" Shuffling slowly to them he waved them over and when they finally came in he stared as a few of the dead came running down the street. He watched them closely as they ran past the house he sighed in relief and looked over at the couple, he figured out why they were so slow, they were elderly. _

_ "Thank you young man." The woman whispered to him and he didn't answer, he just resumed __his place on the couch and watched for any more signs of the dead. Every now and again he would look back over at the two behind him, he could hear them whispering to themselves both of their hands conjoined together._

_ "Get some rest, I can keep watch." He whispered to them and the man looked over at him and patted his wife's head._

_ "Wake me soon, I can keep watch so you can sleep as well." Cloud nodded, and as they fell asleep, Cloud didn't wake them they didn't need to worry he would keep them safe._

* * *

"When morning came I woke them up and we-." Cloud cut himself short when he heard a light snoring sound, Tifa had fallen asleep on him. He flushed with annoyance was he that boring? He soon calmed down though, it wasn't that he was boring, it had been a long day, and Cloud couldn't blame her for wanting to get a few hours of escape into a sweet dream.

* * *

Sitting under a Verde tree that reached up towards the unrelenting sun sat a large man humming and sharpening probably the largest sword known in existence. It was thick too, laced with strong metals and tough alloys. It laid across his lap while he brought the sharpening stone down the length of the blade. He hummed one of his favorite songs, but didn't dare sing it lest he ruin the memory of the song with his terrible voice. He smiled to himself as he kept working on the sword, a warm breeze blew through which he was grateful for. Sitting under the tree only offered light protection from the sun.

"Zack what are you doing out here?" He heard a soft voice voice and looked up from his sword and saw a small woman dressed in pink lean over to the sitting man. "You're going to get sun burned." She said her motherly tone sticking out and Zack childishly stuck his tongue out at the woman.

"I don't burn! I only tan." He said flexing his exposed arms, he smiled as the woman giggled and shook her head.

"Of course, how could I forget." She said softly and patted his head softly before taking the water can and watering the tree, Zack was sure that watering the tree was a bit much, but then again it was giving him shade. "Any word on Tifa and Miranda?" He heard and shook his head sadly frowning, he hoped the two women were ok.

"Na, not yet Aerith, maybe we should go after them?" He stood up, he was shirtless and a light sheen of sweat showed on his body.

"I want to but every time we even suggest it to Cid you know he keeps shooting it down." She frowned and sighed in worry and pat Zack's shoulder, he towered over the woman.

"Maybe we should go without his permission." Aerith frowned and stopped patting his shoulder and shook her head.

"That's not a good idea at all Zack, we don't need to be separated in this moment, we need to join together as one group, and we all decided that would be under Cid." She voiced her concern and was about to go on if it wasn't for a loud crash.

"No! Barrett it's mine now!" They both turned their heads as a small girl came barreling from inside and ran towards them, she had a large shirt in her hands. Following after her was a hulking man, skin as dark as night he had a ferocious look on his face.

"Bring that back you brat!" He called out, lucky for Yuffie though she was agile and she was soon at the top of the tree, Barrett stood at the bottom of the tree staring up. "Get back down here before I knock this tree over!"

"No!" Both Aerith and Yuffie shouted at the same time and Zack was too busy hunched over laughing too hard to really be doing anything. Barrett fumed and growled before storming with a promise to return when Yuffie finally did come down. Yuffie sat there was a smug grin on her face.

"Hi Aerith!" She called down and the woman crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head at the woman.

"You shouldn't be taking things from other people's rooms again Yuffie." She scolded softly and Yuffie's grin just grew even bigger.

"B-But it's an awesome shirt! It has my favorite band on it!" She said in her defense and Zack finally stood back up wiping tears from his eyes and he smiled at the young woman and gave her a thumbs up.

"Zack! Don't encourage her!"

"Too late Aerith!" Yuffie called down and Zack erupted into another burst of laughter and Aerith crossed her arms over her chest shaking her head at the two.

"Phew, nice Yuffie." Zack started to say as he calmed down again from his most recent fit of joy and Aerith had continued to water the tree and Yuffie swung her legs back and forth on a branch. He sighed and his previous conversation with Aerith came back to the forefront of his mind. "But we need to go after them, they should have been back yesterday.

"What! Are you two talking about going after Tifa and Miranda?" Yuffie asked before Aerith could even breathe and Zack nodded. "I want to come!" She said quickly leaping from the high branch and landing smoothly onto the ground. "I can be useful."

"There's no way Yuffie you're far too young!" Aerith spoke and set the now empty can of water down before reaching over and wrapping her arms around Yuffie protectively.

"Aw Aerith I can hold my own!" Aerith just shook her head and Zack started to hum in thought, it was a rare moment in time that he took the time to think about what he was actually about to do. Aerith and Yuffie watched him and Zack just smiled.

"Lets go." He said grabbing his sword with one hand, the muscles in his arms bulged as it looked as though it weighed more than Yuffie and Aerith combined.

"No! Zack, Cid will be angry at you!" Aerith said as Yuffie was talking quickly about how excited she was to be able to come along and help Zack rescue the women. "He'll make you, clean bathrooms!" And Zack just rolled his eyes, if that were to happen then fine, it was worth it to save the lives of two people he loved dearly.

* * *

"Are you sure you're not gonna be cold?" Yuffie questioned looking over at Zack who only had a sleeve-less turtle neck on, the soft fabric stretching against his chest.

"Yeah! It's nice out, I always liked the snow." Zack said with a huge smile on his face as they drove on the empty roads up towards Flagstaff, they had music blasting through a CD and Zack felt like in this moment life was almost normal. Yuffie would sing along with it and if Zack was feeling stupid he would do it as well. The road wound up through the desert land and soon though grass started to grow and the shrubs turned into pine trees, and eventually the grass disappeared under a thick layer of snow. Zack was glad he took the jeep, a sleek black piece of perfection in this world, technically it was Cid's but Zack used it the most and took the most care of it. "Are we almost there yet?"

Zack nodded, Yuffie was bundled up in heavy jacket and thick pants, but under all that clothing there were weapons that Zack knew Yuffie had hidden, she was only fifteen yet she was dangerous. The thought both made him proud and sad at the same time, no one should have to be used to and ok with killing, especially at her age. The jeep handled the snow quiet well, the sleek and shiny black paint stood out on the background of the snow. Humming the wind blew his obnoxious black bangs away from his face and Yuffie curled up like a ball in her seat groaning about the cold.

"It's ok Yuffie, we'll make it there soon." He said with a smile and she only groaned again and whined about the freezing cold. Zack watched as an old gas station passed on his left and he looked at it. "Oh! That's like Kachina or something." He said scratching the back of his head and the car lost a little of its footing and Yuffie screamed about keeping both hands on the steering wheel. "It means were close Yuffie, turn your radio on and see if you can find them."

Yuffie grumbled and reached inside her belt and pulled out a small black walkie-talkie and started to talk into it.

"Miranda, Tifa do you guys hear me? It's Yuffie, please tell me you're alive." Yuffie waited for an answer, or for them to move closer to where they might be. "Miranda, Tifa..." Yuffie's words were at a loss to Zack as his mind wandered over the possibility that they might be dead. He shook his head and refused to believe it.

"Hello?" Zack stared at the communicator and so did Yuffie, who the hell was that? "Give me that!" A more familiar voice echoed and Yuffie squealed in sheer delight.

"Tifa!"

* * *

"Yes oh my god thank god you're here Yuffie!" Tifa talked back into the communicator and Cloud rubbed the back of his head where Tifa had hit him for talking into the device.

"It's not just me, Zack is here too!" Tifa could faintly hear a shouted 'hello' from over the wind of driving.

"Good! We might just make it out of here alive today then, now Yuffie you and Zack can not, I repeat can _not, _come into town, there's a Horde in here, we're in the middle of it, Mir... Miranda is dead." Silence greeted the two and Cloud could feel Tifa's sorrow but she pushed it aside. "Where are you guys at we can come to you."

"What!" Cloud shouted, they couldn't go out there that would be like suicide, it would be suicide, they would be found and killed and eaten, and that was not what Cloud wanted.

Turning the device off Tifa stared Cloud dead in the eye watching him closely.

"We have been trapped under this bed for two days, my boobs are numb, I can't feel my stomach, I am going to be getting out of here!"

"We just parked at the Kachina Gas Station, do you guys know where that is?" Tifa looked at Cloud who only nodded silently his blue eyes seemed to shine with what little light there was here. Tifa stared at him and he swallowed.

"We do, we'll be there as soon as we can, we request silence from here." Tifa said and she stared at Cloud. "Alright how do we do this?"

Shaking his head Cloud pushed up on the bed and scooted out, just then a wail sounded right above him and he soon found himself under one of the Infected. It scratched and snapped at him trying desperately to get a good hold on him. He could vaguely hear Tifa call his name wrapping his hands around the things neck he started to slowly shift moving his hand so that it was covering its chin and then he twisted. A sickening snap sounded and the creature fell limp against him, he panted and shuddered throwing the thing to the side.

"Cloud! Cloud! Are you alright!?" Cloud could feel the bed shaking where Tifa was trying to get out from under it to help him. Swallowing thickly he just nodded, but realizing she couldn't see that he cleared his throat.

"Y-Yeah I'm fine." He said lifting the bed, it wasn't more than two seconds later that she had crawled out from under the be and was inspecting him for any sort of wounds talking about how worried she was and the whole bit. He just nodded and let her do her thing, it was always easiest just to let her do her thing.

"We need to get out of here." He nodded and felt her grab his hand in hers and she was dragging him off. "The scent of the other dead will keep us safe, it's so strong." She said and Cloud frowned, this was not good, he knew exactly what she was going to do and he wasn't sure he was too on board with that. "Ready?"

"No, not really."

"Well we're going anyway." The door was broken down and they slowly made their way out, dead stumbled through the whole area, they shifted, walked and wailed their way through the small neighborhood. Staying silent he started to lead the way he bit his lip walking slowly into the crowd of the dead, being blind they didn't see they were alive, and they didn't speak, making it seem as though they were just another one of them in their eyes, no pun intended. Cloud bumped shoulders, rammed chests and tripped the Infected, he led Tifa through the crowd at an angle knowing a way to get through to Kachina quicker. Looking over his shoulder Tifa was biting her lip and was squeezing his hand to death, her other hand was clenched into a fist. She stared at him and when he wasn't looking at her the back of his head. He mouthed 'it's going to be ok.'

She didn't seem to respond to it, probably thinking about how much of a bad idea this actually way. Cloud just squeezed her hand back and then he saw the edge of the group, it was at the forest, it seemed like they were just a long line, not very thick, the Infected seem to end near the line of the forest and as soon as Cloud and Tifa got into it they ran. Running through the woods Cloud led both of them to a road where they again didn't stop for anything. The road was surprisingly somewhat clear of snow, and it twisted and turned through a few houses and down through the country side of the snow town.

"Where are we going?" Tifa asked and Cloud just shook his head using his breath for running and not talking. Soon the dirt road again turned to pavement and Cloud started to walk and Tifa was talking to someone through the communicator again, Cloud didn't bother to pay attention to it. "Yeah I think we're almost there be ready." Cloud heard Tifa say and she turned the radio off again and then looked to Cloud trying hard to control her breathing.

"We need to go only a little while longer." He said and she nodded and let him lead the way, they walked to catch their breath. Cloud looked over his shoulder often, he was leaving his home after being there for so long. He hissed and grabbed his chest as the tightness returned, normally it was just uncomfortable but this time it was painful.

"Cloud! Are you ok?" Tifa said quickly moving to his aid and he nodded shoving the feeling away into the back of his mind, he had to get to safety and he had to make sure Tifa was safe too. They walked side by side and after they had caught their breath they started to almost run, jogging towards the gas station. Turning onto the main road, the high-way, he started to run again they were close and Cloud could feel his heart start to pound in his chest. Running for a few more minutes straight his heart stopped in his chest when he saw a car and two people moving around it the hood up. "Zack, Yuffie!"

The figures stopped moving and waved back, maybe Cloud heard a shrill squeal of happiness and he didn't bother to think much longer on it when he looked over his shoulder to see several dead running after them.

"Run!" He yelled at Tifa and she doubled her efforts, Cloud did the same, lucky for them the zombies behind them were very far away. Cloud bit his lip and watched as if in slow motion the vehicle with its two guardians approached his vision.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" A tall man with black hair ushered them into the jeep once they got close. Cloud found himself in the back seat with Tifa and a small Asian girl was with the other in the front of the car. Turning the key Cloud and Tifa's hearts stopped beating, the car wouldn't start, it wasn't clicking into place! "What the fuck!" He heard the man roar and he winced at the sound, Tifa just patted his arm trying to keep him and herself calm. Looking over the side of the car the dead were coming too fast they would have to leave.

"Come on!" Tifa shouted and the others followed after the three others as they started to run down the road, they had no chance of fighting off the small offshoot of the horde, that was still quiet sizable.

"You mother fuckers! Where the fuck are you fuckers!" He heard and Yuffie let out another shout of approval while they were running back towards the freeway.

"Cid you crazy son of a bitch! You got to help us we're being chased, Miranda is dead and we're about to have this kid pass out of on us." Cloud started to phase the words out of his head, for some reason the man didn't sound tired at all from the running. Tripping he fell face first into the concrete.

"Cloud!" He vaguely heard someone say as someone grabbed his arm trying to lift him up, he wheezed and leaned over coughing up blood. "Oh no..."

Tifa stared in horror at her friend and the dead were closing in on them.

"Hurry Tifa!" Yuffie called out to her and she nodded grabbing her friend and dragging him along Zack was over and reached the smaller male up and cradled him wedding style, Cloud's arm thrown over his neck. "Look! I see Cid!" Up in the sky a black helicopter hovered over and a ladder was kicked out the driver side, it swung down in front of them Yuffie was flying up the ladder at inhuman speeds. Tifa a little slower, and finally Zack hung onto the bottom rungs and held onto the unconscious man.

"Come on little buddy, you can make it." Zack whispered to the sleeping man as they started to take off towards the desert.

* * *

'Beep, beep, beep.' Warmth, it was too damn hot here was the only thought that lingered on his drugged mind while he vaguely listened to the beating of the machine in the room. His eyes were shut to the world but that didn't really seem to save him from any of the strong light that fluttered into the room. Slowly his mind started to take notice of other things, the room smelt... weird, a good weird but still weird. He sniffed at the air slowly trying to figure out what the scent in the air was, he knew what it was, but he just couldn't place a name to it.

"Roses, I love flowers." A soft voice suddenly spoke, he hadn't even noticed that the door to the room had opened, or maybe the voice had been with him the entire time and he hadn't known. He now noticed the soft patter of booted feet on the tile as they moved around the room. "This is my sanctuary, I take care of all the flowers here and work here, don't they smell nice?" Cloud wished to answer the kind voice, it soothed him and for a moment all he could feel was now the not so unbearable warmth and the scent of the flowers. "I also like Lillies and Daises, they had a nice contrast to the red of the Rose I think." The voice giggled and he could feel eyes on his body.

"You probably don't care though do you?" The voice held no malice but Cloud desperately wished that he could tell the girl that he did want to know more, it was a soothing thing, flowers.

"Hey babe." Cloud heard a new voice join the other, this one deeper and more masculine than the other one.

"Good morning Zack."

"How's our patient?" A quiet humming sounded and Cloud tried to listen in but he felt his senses start to dull again.

"He's fine... just a bad case of pneumonia luckily he's young and will make it out just fine." She said and that was the last thing Cloud could remember before he drifted back off into sweet slumber.

"He looks really pale." Zack said looking over the small sleeping form of the young boy they had rescued, Tifa had left only moments ago, Aerith making her go get some rest. Apparently Tifa had known him before the Outbreak.

"That's actually his natural skin believe it or not, he looks a lot better than when they brought him in." She said walking over and placing the back of her hand on his forehead and smiled. "His fever is broke, that's a nice thought." She smiled at Zack and the man gave her his famous grin and walked over wrapping his arms around the smaller frame.

"We should keep him." Zack said as if talking about a pet, and that's how he thought of it, the boy was cute like a little animal, or a stuffed animal. Zack gasped at the thought and started to bounce up and down excitedly.

"Calm down Zack." Aerith giggled and shook her head, her long brown hair ticking the exposed arm of Zack. "If he wished to stay I'm sure that can accommodate him, but if he wishes to leave we can't stop him."

"Yeah... I guess but still look at him he looks like one of those little Chocobo things from those games, what were they called again?" Aerith shrugged her shoulders and pet back the spiky blonde hair from the peaceful face.

"He is kinda cute isn't he."

"Yes!"

* * *

"Uggh." Cloud groaned as he felt his mind return to his body, it was much cooler now but still too damn hot for him.

"You're awake!" Cracking his eyes open he noticed the familiar figure of Tifa hovering over him a smile on her face as he woke. "Aerith! He's awake!" He winced as her voice rang out, he had a vicious migraine at the moment and just couldn't stand it. Weakly reaching up a hand he covered Tifa's mouth to which she arched an eyebrow.

"Shh... headache." He whispered before putting his hand back down and closing his eyes he heard the door open and a light flicker on, illuminating the room with bright white light.

"Good evening Cloud, I'm Aerith." He heard that same soft voice from earlier and again cracked his eyes open to take a look at the new person. The first thing he noticed about her was her eyes, they were the deepest shade of green that he had ever seen, and the expression in those eyes were kind and sweet. Next was her hair, two large bangs hung in front of her face, and a large braid drifted down to her waist in the back. She had a small smile on her face and she looked at him kindly. "How are you feeling?"

"Did I get run over?" Giggling softly she shook her head and Cloud let his eyes slide closed again, the fluorescent lights bothering him a little.

"No luckily, you had a bad case of Pneumonia, lucky you're young and strong your body fought it off for so long. Once we got you here I was able to stabilize you easily, you'll be just fine in a week or two." He heard Tifa let out a sigh of relief and a smaller hand squeezed his, his face remained blank and he just took the time to breathe in the scent of the room again. "We were worried that you were one of the infected for a moment there, but when I was able to inspect you I was glad to find that it wasn't true."

"Me too, it's so nice to see you again Cloud." He heard Tifa whisper to him and his lip twitched in a semblance of a smile, it didn't last more than a second though.

"You need to let him rest some more Tifa, he needs to regain his strength."

"But I just got here!" Another voice yelled out and he again cracked his eyes open to spot that same small Asian girl. She couldn't be much older than fourteen, she had huge brown, almost black, eyes and a large smile on her face.

"Yuffie, now is not the time." Aerith chided in that motherly tone that she normally used when around the spunky girl.

"But I want to meet the guy I saved! I want to here him say thank you." Cloud and Tifa both snorted at that and Yuffie gave them a confused look. Walking over Cloud noticed that she was very small, she seemed full of energy though, small people they seemed to have that. "So cough it up!"

"Yuffie, let him sleep." Aerith said gently leading the girl out and she cried that this was far from over and she would be back. Tifa chuckled and looked back down at Cloud.

"She's a nice girl, a little on the... um energetic side though." Cloud nodded already drifting back off to slumber and Tifa just smiled and pet his head. "Sleep tight Cloud."

* * *

"Oh look! He's waking again!" Cloud groaned as a loud voice woke him from his peaceful slumber. He had been here for a few days now and was already starting to feel better. After the first day he was here he had taken note of his surroundings, he was laying in a white hospital bed, they still weren't comfortable, in a pink room with flowers coming out everyone's ears.

"Zack stop the poor thing needs rest." Cloud wanted to disagree but the woman still had him up on drugs that kept him from doing much of anything besides, sleep, eat and use the facilities. He opened his eyes and his breath caught in his throat and his heart stopped. Those eyes, were a dull blue color, the kindness and excitement in them was overwhelming. His hair was as spiky as Cloud's but dark as a clear night sky, his grin was most noticeable on his face though it was large and wide, Tifa was right, Zack was a stud.

"Aerith, he looks kinda spacy how much drugs have you put in him?"

"Oh, they should be wearing off around now... did I put more than I thought?" Cloud shook his head and regained his composure and stared at them his eyes seemed to be a bit more... aware now.

"Hey Spike! I'm Zack." Cloud arched an eyebrow at the name and stared at the hand for a moment before slowly lifting his to shake with the man. His hand was larger than Cloud's and seemed to engulf his in the strong grip. Cloud didn't speak back to the man staying as silent as he normally did, he really only talked when Tifa was here. "How ya' doin'?" Cloud shrugged his shoulders and the man seemed to deflate a little when he didn't speak back.

"You don't really talk do you?"

"Zack he's been here for a few days, most of those he's spent sleeping he's not going to open up to us yet." Cloud seemed content with Aerith's words and Zack deflated completely, but that only lasted for a moment before the man had his grin back on his face.

"That's alright! I'll just make you open up to me Spike!" Zack watched him carefully, Cloud finally stopped looking at his face and tried to subtly look at his body. Lucky for him Zack was staring at Aerith while she was playing with her plants. He was muscular, and defined, tall and appeared to be very strong, Cloud told himself the feeling in his chest was jealousy, it couldn't possibly be desire. His skin was several shades darker than Cloud's holding a deep tan that Cloud never seemed able to get, that he was truly jealous of.

"Wakey-Wakey eggs and fuckin' backey." Cloud looked up as yet another person entered the room, it was a single man. He wasn't as tall as Zack or as built but he was exceeding farther than Cloud in both of those areas.

"Cid watch your language." Aerith reprimanded and Cid just rolled his eyes, he put out his cigarette at the door though, Aerith gave him a sweet smile. Cloud watched the man closely, not quite liking him just yet.

"What's up Kiddo, nice to meet ya' Cid Highwind." Again with the outstretched hands, shaking it Cloud spoke up this time, feeling that he should in the presence of the 'Leader' as Tifa put it.

"Cloud Strife." He answered back and Zack look flabbergasted that Cloud had spoken to Cid but not him.

"Glad you're gettin' Kid." Cid said crossing his arms over his chest and eyeing Cloud, he felt as though he might need to be concerned. "When you get better you're leaving." Silence answered the room and Cloud felt shocked, though his face seemed accepting. He started to think about it in his head, this was their home and if Cid didn't want him here then he had no right to be here. He let out a breath and nodded.

"Wait! No, Cloud don't agree with him, come on Cid he's just a kid." Cid shrugged his shoulders and walked out of the room Aerith started at him with shock in her green eyes. "Don't worry Spike we'll talk with him, he can't kick you out you're stuck with us now." Cloud rolled his eyes, for some reason he doubted he would be here for very much longer if Cid was determined to be rid of him.

"Yeah... don't worry Cloud we got your back." Aerith spoke in her breathy tone and rested a hand on his shoulder. Cloud was confused, why did these people care so much already, he only knew them for a few days. Unless Tifa opened her massive gaping maw that was called a mouth and started to talk about him these people only knew his name. Maybe it was the human need to surround itself with other people when most of the world was eating each other, he didn't know.

* * *

"I've called you all here today to talk about our guest."

"No shit Sherlock, how could you want to kick Cloud out!" Tifa hissed out quickly and Cid ignored her for the most part, his eye twitched in anger though.

"Yeah, he's done nothing to hurt us, I don't see why we need to get rid of him." Aerith spoke out which in these sort of events she rarely did.

"Hurt us? He got Miranda killed!" Barrett growled out, his arms crossed over his chest glaring at the side of the room that held Tifa, Zack, Aerith and Yuffie. The big room was full of picnic tables and it appeared to be a mess hall of sorts. It was pretty dull covered mostly in stainless steal and a few trays sat here and there. The room was lit up with candles and lacked the electricity that Aerith's work place seemed to have.

"That wasn't his fault! Miranda and I got separated, when we finally met back up she lured a bunch of the Infected off my ass! She saved my life!" Tifa glared at Barrett and the two seemed about ready to go at it.

"Stop fighting please!" Aerith cried out and everyone fell silent waiting for her to speak on it. "Yes we lost Miranda... and it's a tragic loss she was such a sweet girl, however it's wrong of us to be sending Cloud back out into the world it would be like murder."

"We do not have the supplies to feed another mouth." Vincent spoke quietly and few heard him until Cid echoed what he had said.

"That's an easy fix, we're all completely capable of making a big run, one that could sustain us and him for months!" Zack said he seemed stressed out but tried to keep smiling for the sake of the group around him.

"We're running out of gas Zack so unless you plan on walking there and back with months worth of supplies then we're screwed! And if you don't remember it was because of you that I lost my Jeep!" Cid growled at the man and flicked some ashes toward the second largest man in the room.

"There's plenty of gas to be salvaged though! It's not too hard with a few people we could fill up a few tanks and then we'd be able to make that run." Yuffie finally spoke up a large smile on her face thinking she finally figured out the solution to the problem.

"And where do you suggest we do that you little punk, we've practically sucked Phoenix dry." Barrett glared at the girl still mad that she stole his shirt, she stuck her tongue out at him and he softened a little bit.

"He can prove himself!" Tifa cried out when everyone was starting to doubt letting him stay, even Aerith looked a little sad. "He lived on his own for two years, it's more than most of us can say we did, give him a shot." Tifa begged and Zack, Yuffie and Aerith all agreed with her staring Cid down and he looked at the other two. Barrett shook his head and Vincent shrugged, growling Cid pinched the bridge of his nose and looked at Tifa.

"He will be tested and if he proves himself useful then he can stay but if he fails it's out into the desert with him!"

* * *

Staring at the dull pink wall ahead of him Cloud only had the sound of his heartbeat from the machine to sound off at him. He sighed and fidgeted with his fingers, where was everyone, he knew what they were talking about though. He wondered why anyone but Tifa would want him to stay, he bit his lip and let the worried feelings inside of him show on his face. If they kicked him back out Cloud wasn't sure if he would make it through long, he was already starting to wing it when Tifa suddenly came back into his life. Hearing footsteps coming back in his direction his face quietly remolded itself into a cool expressionless one, staring at the doorway as Tifa walked in her face was grim.

"Hey Cloud."

"Tifa." She walked over to her friend and sat on the chair next to it and hunched over staring at the ground. "They're kicking me out." He said suddenly noticing her body language and how it didn't look all to well.

"Oh no, no. Luckily we were able to talk Cid out of it before he threw you out himself, but there is a catch." Cloud arched his brow, he hated catches, they annoyed him. "You have to prove yourself useful if you want to stay."

"That's a catch? I was pretty sure in this day and age that was a given." Cloud said unimpressed with her words. Glaring at Cloud she punched him in the arm and he winced, she had one hell of a punch in her.

"It will probably be very difficult and you might have no one to help you." She said, the anger in her face showed the concern that lie beneath it.

"I lived two years on my own Tifa, I can handle doing something for the group." Tifa smiled and leaned over, her annoyance with the other gone, and hugged him.

"Good, I just found you I won't be losing you so soon."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Finished this early, I was really pleased with the way this Chapter turned out. I decided I would also put it out early for you all to see, that doesn't mean next chapter will be in a week, but at the very latest the Tuesday after this coming one. I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter and please review for me! Let me know what you feel!

_-Rev_


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